Protein‐imprinted particles for coronavirus capture from solution

Molecular imprinting is a promising strategy to selectively adsorb viruses, but it requires discerning and validating epitopes that serve as effective imprinting templates. In this work, glycoprotein‐imprinted particles were synthesized for coronavirus capture. Adsorption was maximized at pH 6 (the glycoprotein isoelectric point) where the glycoprotein‐imprinted particles outperformed non‐imprinted particles, adsorbing 4.96 × 106 ± 3.33 × 103 versus 3.54 × 106 ± 1.39 × 106 median tissue culture infectious dose/mg of the target coronavirus, human coronavirus – organ culture 43, within the first 30 min (p = 0.012). During competitive adsorption, with pH adjustment (pH 6), the glycoprotein‐imprinted particles adsorbed more target virus than non‐target coronavirus (human coronavirus – Netherland 63) with 2.34 versus 1.94 log removal in 90 min (p